


forever in the sunshine riptide

by xerampelinae



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Clone Blues, M/M, Shiro (Voltron) Has a Clone, circa season 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-09
Updated: 2018-05-09
Packaged: 2019-05-04 07:46:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14588334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xerampelinae/pseuds/xerampelinae
Summary: “I’ve been trying to figure it out,” Keith says. “You never acted like this under the stress of the most rigorous selection protocols bureaucrats could come with. Not even when you couldn’t figure out how to tell me you landed the Kerberos mission.”Not-Shiro swallows and sits down beside Keith.





	forever in the sunshine riptide

Here is a fact about Shiro and all versions of him: Shiro loves Keith. Fullstop. There is no version of him that does not, across the multiverse, even distorted by Galra technology.

The Shiro that they find adrift in space is not the Shiro that they had lost so many months before. Keith alone knows it, however subconsciously; he has always been the most psionically active of the Paladins, though all of them are sensitive to it. It’s one of the things that they don’t talk about--the way each Paladin communicates with their lion, the way Red always knows when Keith needed her, the way Black had listened to Keith and responded to him that first time. If there’s one thing that they learned in losing Shiro, it’s that Paladins are not interchangeable.

But it was Keith and a Shiro, even if it wasn’t _his_ Shiro, not exactly.

“Keith?” Not-Shiro calls, knocking on the door.

“Come in,” Keith says, feeling weighed down by his bones and realization. He feels like the smallest movement will compromise the stability of his current position: body perched on bed, bent body supported by elbows on knees. The door flits open and closed as it admits Not-Shiro.

“What’s wrong?” Not-Shiro asks. “Coran said it was urgent?”

“Yeah,” Keith sighs, gathering the energy to finally meet Not-Shiro’s eyes. “I let you down.”

“Keith--” Not-Shiro says, stopping when Keith shakes his head.

“I’ve been trying to figure it out,” Keith says. “You never acted like this under the stress of the most rigorous selection protocols bureaucrats could come with. Not even when you couldn’t figure out how to tell me you landed the Kerberos mission.”

Not-Shiro swallows and sits down beside Keith. They sit too close together: a solid, warm press from thigh to the brush of their arms when Keith finally straightens up. They sit there, breathing together. Minutes pass.

“I think you’re a clone, Shiro,” Keith says.

A shocked laugh startles out of Not-Shiro’s mouth. “Out of everyone in the whole universe, you know me best. If that’s what you think--you should call me something else.”

“No to ‘Takashi?’” Keith asks wryly.

Not-Shiro shakes his head. “And before you ask, no to ‘Kuro’ as well. That seems misleading from the viewpoint of color-coding the original and replicant.”

“I remember the literature tutoring,” Keith says dryly, “and your intensive lecture on the harmful nature of casting light as good and dark as bad. If it comes up, you’re welcome to ‘Kogane.’”

Laughing, Not-Shiro reaches out and tucks Keith under his arm, pulling him even closer. “Thanks, Keith.”

“I know you’d do the same for me,” Keith protests, but he’s blushing.

“I would,” Not-Shiro admits cheerfully. “ _We_ would.”

“What about ‘Tadashi?’” Keith says suddenly. Not-Shiro ignores the obviousness of the redirection to make an encouraging expression. “Different but not too off. You told me once that ‘Takashi’ was written with the character for honor. ‘Tadashi’ is written with the character for loyalty.”

For a long moment, Not-Shiro’s stunned into silence. Then he shakes his head and smiles. “You’ve always seen the best in me, Keith.”

“‘Tadashi’ it is,” Keith says quietly. Tadashi sighs and pulls Keith closer. Two arms wrap snugly around Keith’s shoulders; he just sighs and relaxes against him. Trusting. Heaven help Tadashi, but Keith’s choice in names is too intuitive, too correct. He remembers suddenly a literature, dug up from Actual-Shiro’s memories: anagnorisis, etymologically from pain and delay, in which you know yourself so thoroughly that it is shown in your identity.

“The team will want to substantiate first,” Keith mumbles, mouth pressed into Tadashi’s shoulder. “If we could pull the Castle’s scans--”

“--They might be able to scan on an epigenetic level. If the Garrison can sequence on that level to track changes in gene expression, the Castle may very well have that capacity. Might even be able to track genetic code alterations already.” Tadashi says. “No wonder Black wouldn’t let me in.”

Keith nods, hair tickling Tadashi’s nose.

“You should probably be back in Black,” Tadashi says. “I know it’s not where you want to be. I know it’s a lot. But it’s better than an unknown. And, you’re a better leader than you think. You always take care of your team.”

“You’re worried we might have to put you in cryo,” Keith says, lifting his head up enough to be heard.

Tadashi nods. “We need to know if Zarkon’s witch can track me or control me. If she can make me fight. If she’s been influencing me.”

“Okay,” Keith says.

“And then--we can start looking for your Shiro. For Takashi.”

Keith makes a wounded noise, muffled by Tadashi’s collar, but he nods.

“Tomorrow?” Keith says.

“Tomorrow,” Tadashi promises.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Fall Out Boy's "Sunshine Riptide."  
> I wasn't expecting to write for Voltron before the next season came out, let alone so soon, but I've been sick and started working on this and a coda for "sand of the hourglass" so hello again.  
> I am convinced that Keith would find all the Shiro clones and take them home with him to live happily. Everybody gets a name.


End file.
